The Jews gave no special names to the days of the week, but simply distinguished them by their number, as the first, second, or third day. The names of the days now in use in the English language are derived from the Saxon, in which they had a mythological signification.
Besides weeks of seven days, which were ren dered from one Sabbath to another, the Jews had a week of years, or seven years, and a week of seven times seven years, which brought in the fiftieth or jubilee year. (See WEEK.) (4) Day (Heb. yore; Gr.incepa, hay-mer'ah).
The natural (lay consists of twenty-four hours, or one revolution of the earth upon its axis. The artificial day is the time during which the sun is above the horizon. The civil day is reckoned differently by different nations—some from sun rise to sunrise; others from sunset to sunset; others still from noon to noon, or from mid night to midnight. The Jewish day was reckoned from evening to evening, adopted, as some think. from Gen. i :5, or, as others with more probability hold, from the "use of the lunar calendar in regu lating days of religious observance" (Lev. xxiii: 32). Their Sabbath, or seventh day, which was the only day named—the others were numbered merely—began on what we call Friday, at sun set, and ended on what we call Saturday, at sun set (Exod. xii :18). This mode of reckoning days was not uncommon in other Eastern nations. The day was originally divided into morning, noon, and night (Ps. lv:17). But besides, the Jews distinguished six unequal parts, which were again subdivided. (I) Dawn, subdivided into gray dawn and rosy dawn. (2) Sunrise. Some supposed that the Hebrews, prior to leaving Egypt, began the day at that time, but discontinued it by divine command, and began at even in order to be differ ent from those nations which worshiped the ris ing sun.. (3) The heat of the day, about nine o'clock (I Sam. xi:11; Nch. vii:3, etc.). (4) The two roans (Gen. xliii:i6; Dent. xxviii:29).
(5) The cool (lit. wind) of the day, before sunset (Gen. iii :8). (6) Evening. In Exod. xii:6; xxx: 8, margins, occurs the phrase "between the two evenings," which probably is correctly taken to mean "between the beginning and end of sun set."
FiguratiVe. The word "day" is used of a festal day (Hos. vii:5) ; a birthday (Job iii:1) ; a day of ruin (Hos. i:11; Job xviii :2o) ; the judg ment day (Joel i :15 ; t Thess. v:2; Acts xvii :31) ; and the kingdom of Christ (John viii:56; Rom. xiii:12). It is also often used to denote an in definite time (Gen. ii :4 ; Is. xxii:5). The term "three days and three nights," in Matt. xii:4o, denotes the same space of time as "three days" (Matt. xxvii :63, 64). (See DAY.) (5) Hour (Chald. shaw-aw', properly a look ; Gr. 6pa, ho'rah).
The ancient Hebrews, like the Greeks (Homer. Iliad, xxi:3), were unacquainted with any other means of distinguishing the times of day than the natural divisions of morning. midday or noon. twilight, and night (Gen. XV :12; xviii :I ; xiX:I. 15, 23). The earliest mention of hours occurs in Daniel (iii :15; iv:19; v:5) ; and even in the Septuagint 1,'pa invariably signifies a season of the year, as in Homer and Hesiod. As the Chal deeans claimed the honor of inventing this system of notation (Herod. ii. t 19), it is most probable that it was during their residence in Babylon that the Jews became familiar with their artificial distribution of the day. At all events no trace of it occurs before the captivity of that people; while, subsequently to their return to their own land, we find the practice adopted, and. in the time of Christ. universally established, of divid ing the day and night respectively into twelve equal portions (Matt. xx :3-5; John xi:9; Acts v:7; xix :34). The Jewish horology, however, in common with that of other Eastern nations, had this inherent defect, that the hours, though always equal to one another, were unequal in regard to the seasons and that as their day was reckoned from sunrise to sunset, and not from the fixed period of noon. as with us, the twelve hours into which it was divided varied, of course, in dura tion according to the fluctuations of summer and winter. The midday, which with us is the twelfth hour, the Jews counted their sixth, while their twelfth hour did not arrive till sunset. (See HOURS.)